AMD and Nvidia will launch new graphics cards in the performance class this autumn

With a few exceptions, the latest graphics card launches have consisted of old stars in a new edition. Those who are waiting for bigger news can, in short, persevere for a while longer, or at least look towards the autumn and winter high season.

Admittedly, these are not new graphics circuits with 20 nanometer technology. These will appear in 2015 at the earliest, but already after the summer months, AMD and Nvidia can hatch a couple of newcomers with the almost three-year-old 28 nanometer technology.

A lot is about lowering energy consumption and producing both more energy-efficient and more high-performance graphics cards. Nvidia has already given a taste of what will come with the Geforce GTX 750 and GTX 750 Ti, which is based on the new architecture Maxwell – the successor to today’s Kepler.

AMD leaves Tahiti for Tonga

Closest in time, however, is AMD with the graphics circuit Tonga. It is expected to arrive in August or September and more or less replaces the Radeon R9 280 and R9 280X in the performance segment. This means that the clock is ticking for the long-distance Tahiti, which was introduced already at the end of 2011 with the Radeon HD 7900 series.

According to previous information, AMD Tonga delivers performance on a par with the Radeon R9 280X to the power consumption of a Radeon R9 270X. The memory bus should be 256-bit wide, which is less than 384-bit for Tahiti. This can to some extent be compensated with faster memory modules. Rumor has it that the number of computing units will remain the same as its predecessor, ie 2,048 stream processors.

Geforce Maxwell i prestandaklassen

Sometime in the fourth quarter of the year, probably in October or November, Nvidia will be next in line with the GM204 graphics processor. The newcomer is said to show up just in time for Christmas shopping and take over after today’s Geforce GTX 770 and 780 (Ti) in the upper performance class.

Some more in-depth details are not yet known, but the web is overflowing with rumors and speculation. An interesting detail, however, is that the circuit is called GM204 and not GM104, which reinforces previous information that this graphics processor is the second generation Maxwell. It may also explain the odd decision to place the Geforce GTX 750 and 750 Ti (GM107) in the same model range as its predecessors Kepler.

Thus, there are many indications that this is a refreshed Maxwell architecture, which begins with the Geforce GTX 870 and 880, where there is more news than just higher performance.